In November, Floridians will have the option to vote Yes or No on Amendment 4, whose full title is Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion.

The ballot summary is actually much longer than the full text that would be added to the Florida State Constitution.

Ballot Summary: No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary
to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not
change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor
has an abortion.

The additional text that would be added as a new section to Article 1 reads as follows:

Limiting government interference with abortion.— Except as provided in Article X, Section 22, no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.

Yes, that’s the full text, so if you’ve read this far, you’re more officially more educated on this topic than most people on the Internet.

Despite the simple and concise nature of this amendment, it had to overcome a significant legal challenge to even qualify for the ballot.

Aside from the usual hurdle (all amendments to the state constitution require sufficient petition signatures from registered voters to be considered at all), Ashley Moody challenged the amendment to prevent it from being on the ballot.

While I personally would not vote for this initiative no matter what definition of “viability” it was using, I know that to some voters, it is material to their vote – whether you are talking about an abortion in the first trimester or at the end of the second trimester.

Ashley Moody, Florida’s Voice (Oct. 2023)

Thanks for the paper-thin argument, Ashley.

Viability is an unambiguous term. It refers to whether or not a fetus’s organs have developed such that it can live (hence the “vi” in “viable”) outside of the mother’s womb without technological assistance.

Floriduh Man’s Opinion

Amendment 4 is a damn good idea. We will be voting “Yes” on it in November, and encourage everyone to do so if they can. If you’re not sure if you can, check your voter registration status online.

The best people to assess the viability of a fetus are experts in health, biology, and medicine.

Medical decisions that could affect a patient’s life should be made by the patient and their health care provider, not politicians or church leaders.

And if you oppose abortion, then don’t get one if you’re ever pregnant. Easy peasy!